title: What attitudes and beliefs underlie patients' decisions about participating in chemotherapy trials?
abstract: The theory of reasoned action, which postulates that personal attitudes and external social influences predict intentions to undertake a behavior, was used as a conceptual framework for developing a questionnaire to elicit beliefs and attitudes associated with the decision to participate in a hypothetical cancer chemotherapy trial. After completing the questionnaire, two-thirds of the 150 respondents indicated they would enroll in such a trial if it were available. Considerable variation existed in both "universal" and "trial-specific" beliefs and attitudes underpinning their intentions. A substantial amount of the variance in "intention" to participate was explained by "attitude" alone (75%). Social influences, although statistically significant, made a mere 1% additional contribution. One interpretation is that subjective expected-utility theory, which essentially predicts beliefs or "attitude," is a better model. The authors conclude that both theories may be criticized regarding how well they capture the rationality and nuances of decision behavior.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Statistics, Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada. hsutherl@oci.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: da Cunha
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Lockwood
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Till
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003657:Decision Making; D003662:Decision Theory; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012044:Regression Analysis